Sophia
'''Sophia' is a woman who lived 500 years before the events of Xenogears. She is the first Mother of the Nisan Orthodoxy and is the third chronological reincarnation of Elly that the game portrays. Sophia is but a given title name to her status (much like how the Papacy functions), as her proper birth name was also "Elly". Born as the third daughter of the Bishop of the Nisan teaching's "Ashura Monastery". She had met Lacan when she was but a child while recovering from illness. Around the time that she was 7 years old, she manifested a rare talent (Ether Ability) and was sent as the adopted daughter to Cardinal Penuel as a future candidate for Holy Mother. At 13, she was chosen, effectively changing her name to "Sophia". However, this was in the midst of battle between factions over the selection of Holy Mother. Fighting among the Church factions was a bloody battle for the choosing of Mother based on heredity within the Church. The Penuel faction also was not immune to this and gradually Sophia would begin to feel responsible for it, bringing upon the desire to take her own life to end the suffering. When the attack on the monastery occurred by Nimrod, Sophia was faced by Krelian, leader of Nimrod's Corps, who was there to kill her. She simply smiled and said "... thank you.", as if he were about to release her burden. Having been taken by her smile, Krelian instead chose to take her away and protect her. For 7 years, Krelian and Sophia were in exile and their whereabouts were unknown. Upon returning to Nisan, Sophia had learned that public interest in Nisan teachings were waning. As a result, she restructured the organization and renamed it the "Nisan Orthodox". During this period, she became reacquainted with Lacan. Upon the outbreak of the Shevat-Solaris War, refugees poured into Nisan. With Sophia at the head of the Healing Corps, she became revered as "Holy Mother". After that, when Nisan entered battle, Sophia's will stood as a symbol for the surface-dweller's army. There was a complicated relationship (perhaps a love triangle) between Sophia, Lacan, and Krelian. Sophia and Lacan had unrevealed romantic feelings for each other. Krelian had unrequited feelings for Sophia as well. Due to a secret plot between Shevat and Solaris, the surface-dwelling army was set a trap. In exchange for ending the war and taking Miang Hawwa prisoner, Solaris wanted Sophia. The Mother Sophia, on the Excalibur; the flagship of the Anti-Solarian Alliance, let out a huge cry, "Live, Lacan!!!!!" before crashing the airship into Merkava to save her people. This led Krelian to "commit so many sins" and spurred a regretful Lacan to obsessively seek power, facilitating his transformation to Grahf. Historical background In Gnostic lore, Sophia (Greek Σoφíα, "wisdom"), is the Demiurge’s mother and a partial aspect of the divine Pleroma. She desired to create something apart from the divine totality and without the receipt of divine assent. In this abortive act of separate creation, she gave birth to the monstrous Demiurge and, being ashamed of her deed, she wrapped him in a cloud and created a throne for him within it. The Demiurge, isolated, did not behold his mother, nor anyone else, and thus concluded that only he himself existed, being ignorant of the superior levels of reality that were his birth-place. Thus the demiurge is frequently identified as the Abrahamic God Yahweh. The Gnostic myths describing these events are full of intricate nuances portraying the declination of aspects of the divine into human form: this process occurs through the agency of the Demiurge who, having stolen a portion of power from his mother, sets about a work of creation in unconscious imitation of the superior Pleromatic realm. Thus Sophia’s power becomes enclosed within the material forms of humanity, themselves entrapped within the material universe: the goal of Gnostic movements was typically the awakening of this spark, which permitted a return by the subject to the superior, non-material realities which were its primal source (the Pleroma). Category:Xenogears characters Category:Deceased Category:Female characters